What is ACCA all about?

Stayaway-lkw SG

I intend to take on the job accountant/banking finance related as a career when I ORD. I've got only an O level cert I've heard of ACCA from friends. What is it actually about and what is it equivalent to? A diploma or a degree? I do not wanna go to polytechnic as it's gonna be a long route as I'm already 21. Please enlighten me thank you!

MyPillowTalks SG

ACCA is association of chartered accountants.
http://singapore.accaglobal.com/

ACCA qualification is a "professional qualification" and is very recognised.
An ACCA qualification is like ATPL(Airline transport pilot licence) for commercial pilots, not sure if it falls under diploma/degrees

I believe your aim is to be a certified public accountant(CPA). Taken from here:
http://corp.icpas.org.sg/qualifications/pathway-to-cpa-singapore.aspx

Also from here: http://www.icpasmembers.org.sg/r_qual.asp?key=nm , you can see ACCA is one of the recognised professional qualifications for you to become a certified public accountant in singapore

A diploma may not directly qualify you as an accountant. Based on SP's Diploma in accountancy course , You can see from the website that after completing the diploma, you are only granted partial exemptions from examinations in ACCA and other professional bodies

Can't help you much, i have no knowledge about accountancy

edit: formatting problems

mcsy86 SG

ACCA is a worldwide recognised chartered accounting body. it is not a diploma or degree. it's a professional qualification, even masters cannot compete with it. the first 9 papers of the qualification are easy peasy. but the last 5 papers (3 core + 2 option papers) are killer papers. many students are trapped at the 3rd level (i'm one of them) and find it difficult to give it up because we have invested so much (time and money) in it. do not forget you still have to pay for the exemption fees (equivalent to the exam fees) if you are exempted for the first few papers.

after you have completed all the exams, you will be an affiliate for 3 years before becoming a member. by then the member fee would be much higher than your annual student fee. do bear in mind that all fees are quoted in pound sterling.

and if you're taking SGP variant papers, you also have to pay ICPAS the annual fee. all these fees are payable for lifetime.

i hope i have enlightened you. feel free to ask me should you have more doubts. will try my best to help out.

cheers~

Stayaway-lkw SG

Thank you guys for your reply. @ mcsy86, seem like i've to spend a lot of money and time on it. but roughly how much do you've to spend to get started? so in other words, I do not have to go get a diploma or degree in order to do accounting but i could do accounting with just acca? & so in conclusion which means I could go reg ACCA with my O levels and proceed further etc?

mcsy86 SG

yes you can proceed to ACCA with O level. But you'll be starting from first paper. If you take ACCA after degree, you may be exempted a few papers, depending on your modules in degree/ diploma program. As for the fees, you can check at ACCA website. Fees payable to ACCA is one cost, don't forget you have to pay tuition centre for the lessons you attend. In higher professional level, tuition + revision fees can cost up to $1k per paper, depending on individual tuition centres. it's optional to sign up for tuition classes, but I believe you would not want to risk retake exams over and over again. By the way, ACCA is not all about accounting. the syllabus also includes busines strategy, financial management, audit and tax.

amandakalrk SG

Hi!

Where are you going to get ACCA? I heard that in the UK there are good courses that provide ACCA. I'm going to pass it next year so I'm considering the variants.

lee7stc SG

In Singapore, the ACCA professional qualification is one of the most popular mode of becoming a practising professional accountant. In one of the recent announcements from The Association of Chartered, Certified Accountants (ACCA), there are over 400,000 student members in the world. This number has risen 10.4% over a 15-month period.

Students in Singapore wishing to earn the ACCA professional qualification can do so, by self study or by registering with any one of the popular ACCA tuition providers. To qualify, one must complete:
1) 14 examination papers – popularly known as F1 to F9 and P1 to P7 (P4 to P7 are options)
2) Professional Ethics Module
3) Minimum 3 years relevant work experience

Anyone can study for the ACCA qualification and those with relevant degree subjects can also seek exemptions, by first checking the exemption status with ACCA online. If you have just left school, make sure you have a minimum of two A-levels and three CCSE O-levels (including Mathematics and English) or equivalent.

Those who wishes to take the ACCA examinations part-time while juggling with work, may consider studying with a registered ACCA tuition provider. FTMSGlobal Academy is one of the world’s largest ACCA tuition providers outside UK. FTMSGlobal offers ACCA tuition in 11 countries. In Singapore, FTMSGlobal was first established in 1986 and has evolved from a financial and accounting training provider to a global provider of top quality education and training provider for professional and academic courses.